Bowling For Hobson

On Friday, Geoff Hobson of bengals.com posted an article updating us about the progress of Jay Gruden through the eyes of three-year-project Jerome Simpson. Since Jerome may well be the closest thing the Bengals have to a #1 receiver next year, I was curious. The article warrants some comments.

First, check out a couple of quotes from Simpson:

“The only thing I’m going to give away is it’s going to be wide open. We’re going to use the personnel and the talent we have. I can see it already and we haven’t run a play yet. It’s getting set up that we’re going to use everybody on this team at every position. From tight ends to wide receivers to running backs.”

We’ve heard this type of description of Jay Gruden’s offense from several people already. To hear a player give the same description is a good sign. He sounds very excited about the offense. They are going to need that. A lot of that. It is also refreshing that he says, “We’re going to use the personnel and the talent we have.“ It seemed the last few years that Brat was making the players fit the system. Letting the system fit the players makes a lot more sense. Firing Brat already seems to be working out.

“I just got it and, shoot, I was in there less than 40 minutes and I was catching on to it. It’s simple, but it’s still complex. It’s not a kindergarten playbook.”

Given the 3 years invested in teaching him Bratkowski’s playbook, 40 minutes is almost frighteningly quick. Was Brat’s system really THAT convoluted? Yikes. I’ll an offense that looks truly complex to opposing defenses without being so complex that future rookies need multiple years to figure it out.

Now for a couple of questions.

“Indications are the Bengals are taking Palmer’s trade-or-retire threat that emanated apparently from people close to him quite seriously. But they also seem to be sticking by president Mike Brown’s adamant declaration of last month that they have no plans to trade him or accept trade proposals.”

How exactly is sticking to Mike Brown’s no-trade stance treating Carson’s trade request seriously? “Honey, I’m not buying the four-carat diamond you want, but I’m taking your request quite seriously.” Hmmm… don’t see that one working.

Personally, I don’t see Carson as simply posturing to get the Bengals to make changes that he wants. I think he is dead serious. I don’t think he intends to ever put on the stripes again. I’d like to be wrong on that. But if I’m right, there is no negotiating room, which makes a comment like GH’s sound silly.

“With every indication wide receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens aren’t coming back…”

Clearly T.O. is done in Cincy. And I keep hearing that Chad is probably gone too. Why? Who is making these ‘indications’? Where exactly is Chad rumored to be going? I’ve heard him this year asking to be traded to the Patriots and to the Jets. Is Mike Brown actually entertaining offers for Chad? Did I miss something?

Mike Brown holds the rights to Chad for 2011. Chad isn’t going anywhere if Mike doesn’t OK it. If he wouldn’t let trade Chad for two first round picks in 2008, is he really going to trade Chad now? I doubt it. I would support it, but I doubt it happens.

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Side note: I’ll let this excerpt of an article about the Chicago Cubs (which I found via Lance McAlister‘s blog) stand without comment.

The authors of “Scorecasting” believe that what has been stopping the Cubs the last three decades is the extreme loyalty of their fans, which has served to reduce the incentive for Cubs management to win.